Mick made his way down the corridor towards the room he shared with Len. When he entered the room, what he saw made him stop in his tracks. Len appeared to be getting ready for a fight, strapping guns and weapons to his body.
"Oh, hell no!" Mick exclaimed. Startled, Len whipped around, pulling a knife. When he saw it was just Mick, he let out a breath and strapped the knife back to his ankle.
"What?" he asked. Mick rolled his eyes at Len's question. He was smart enough to know exactly what he was talking about. Nevertheless, Mick humored the other man.
"You ain't going anywhere." Len straightened up, turning toward his lover, grabbing his cold gun.
"Yes, I am." Mick growled, stomping forward and grabbed the cold gun from Len before the other man could holster it. Len snatched it back, putting it on his thigh, where it belonged.
"You are not going to go get yourself and our baby killed!"
"You're right, I'm not. I know what I'm doing." Len drawled confidently.
"The hell you do." Mick snarled, closing in on Len. Len rolled his eyes and walked past Mick, toward the door. He stopped before he exited the room.
"I'm not going to let you all go off and get yourselves killed when I can be there to protect you." he said, leaving the room.
~x~x~x~
"Based on Captain Hunter's description, the Oculus is a massive temporal computer, most likely powered by a scaled-down supernova contained at the bottom of the Wellspring." Stein explained as they all made their way to the cargo bay of the ship. "Why aren't any of you more excited by this?" he asked after seeing everybody's stoic faces.
"We're excited to blow it up." Sara answered.
"Doctor Palmer will deactivate the core contained supernova, which should create an anomalistic event." Rip instructed. When he got questioning looks from the men and woman standing around him, Stein went on to explain what the captain had said.
"A very big explosion."
"Sounds like a plan." Mick said, shooting a worried glance to his pregnant partner. Len was nothing, if not stubborn. He had made up his mind on this issue and would not be swayed. The only way to keep him safe now was for Mick to protect him in the field. Everyone exited the Waverider and headed for the Oculus Wellspring.
As soon as the group made their way to the building, Druce stepped out from around a corner, followed by a number of heavily armed men.
"Hello again, Rip." he said. "Right on schedule." Rip, who held his hands out and away from his body, looked at Druce, fully aware of the men that began surrounding them. Mick looked to Len. He had had a bad feeling about this mission from the beginning, but it was even worse now. How was he going to get his partner, and team, out of this mess without anyone getting killed? It was hard to see Len's full expression when the man wore his goggles, but he knew he had to be, at least somewhat, scared.
"Uh, I think we've walked into a trap." Ray stated, pulling Mick from his thoughts and staring contest with Len.
"No. It's destiny." Druce said, smirking. Mick growled under his breath, Len placing the hand not holding the cold gun on his arm to calm him. "I must say, you've all played your parts well." he said, eyes scanning over the group. They stopped on Len for a moment, flicking down to his rounded stomach. Mick edged over to slightly place his body in front of his partner's, glaring daggers at the Time Master.
"All your posturing. All your claims about doing what's best for the timeline, about protecting history, and it all comes down to cold-blooded murder." Rip said, seething.
"The difference between murder and execution is only a matter of authority. I have it. You don't." Druce responded. "Kill them all." he ordered. The men that had accompanied Druce armed their weapons and got ready to fire. The hand that Len had on Mick's arm tightened slightly before leaving so that he could power up his cold gun. Mick looked over out of the corner of his eye and saw that the man had a grimace on his face. He didn't think they were going to make it out this time.
Just as the soldiers around them were getting ready to fire, explosions began shaking the ground and they all realized that they were being aimed at the men about to fire at them. Looking up, they all saw a jump ship flying low and firing at their enemies. The soldiers, attention on the jump ship, turned and began returning fire. The team on the ground crouched low to avoid getting hit. Mick steadied Len as the ground shook. When the jump ship finally landed, everyone turned their attention to it as the door slowly opened. Everyone rose to their feet, shocked to see a normal-looking Jax step out of the small ship.
"Returning the jump ship to the Waverider. Good luck Mr. Jackson." Gideon's voice could be heard saying. Jax approached the group, smiling.
"Hope I'm not too late." he said, arms spread.
"No, Jefferson, you're right on time." Stein said, grinning. They walked toward each other and merged to become Firestorm.
"How did you..." Rip asked, cutting himself off.
"What? You thought you were the only one who knew a thing or two about time travel?"
"Good work. We need to get to the Oculus before reinforcements arrive." They all took off running to the building in front of them. Mick kept pace with Len, who was jogging as fast as he could go in his state.
~x~x~x~
Once they entered through two circular doorways, they saw the Oculus in the middle of a large room that almost looked like an airplane hangar. They all made their way to the Oculus, keeping a lookout for any guards or soldiers that might be lurking around. Ray reached the large pedestal first, climbing the stairs two at a time. Rip stopped at the bottom, holding out a hand to halt the others as Ray took the cover off the side of the machine and inspected the inside.
"Take about two minutes to figure out how to self-destruct this thing." he called back to the others.
"We'll buy you some time." Rip said. He turned to the team behind him. "You lot guard the entrance. Mr. Rory, you're with me." Mick started to put up a fight, there was no way he was leaving Len's side. Len walked over to Mick and pulled off his goggles, looking his lover in the eye.
"It's alright, Mick. I can take care of myself. Plus, I'll have Sara and Firestorm with me." Sara stepped forward.
"He's right." she said. "We won't let anything happen to him." Still not fully convinced, Mick grabbed Len by the back of the head and brought their lips together in a crushing kiss. When he pulled away, he looked into the crystal blue eyes that he loved so much.
"You better be careful." he murmured. Len nodded and he, Sara, and Firestorm turned and headed for the doorway. Mick looked at Rip with a glare. "Anything happens to him, I'm coming after you." he threatened.
~x~x~x~
Len and the others had made themselves useful by keeping the guards that showed up at bay while Ray worked. They didn't expect to see Rip running out alone.
"We're leaving." he said. The other three looked shocked and concerned.
"Where's Raymond and Mick?" Len asked.
"Ray is in my pocket and Mick has elected to stay." Len's eyebrows raised above the goggles he was wearing.
"Why?" he demanded in a stern voice.
"Someone needs to be present to destroy the Oculus. Mick has elected himself." Shock and fear shot through Len and he turned, running into the building that contained the Oculus. Firestorm and Rip turned toward where he was running.
"No, no, no, no, no, you can't! There isn't ti-" Rip cut himself off when Sara turned and followed Len.
"We gotta go!" Firestorm yelled.
Len used his cold gun to take out any guard in his way as he and Sara ran toward Mick. Mick looked surprised to see them, and growled in frustration from where he was holding the lever the Ray had showed him down.
"Mick!" Len yelled.
"Get out of here!" Mick yelled back. Couldn't Len see that he was doing this to ensure a future for him and their baby? Len didn't leave, he kept firing at the enemies across the room.
"Not without you Mick!" Len yelled.
"Pretty boy said I gotta hold this stick for the ship to blow. So, I'm holding this stick. Now, leave!" Len didn't know what to do. If he weren't pregnant, he would just knock Mick out and take his place. That, however wasn't the case. He couldn't just let Mick die either, though. He had to do something. Suddenly, an idea hit him.
"Out of the way!" he demanded. Mick looked at him, worry and stubbornness etched on his face.
"What?! No!" he said. Len rolled his eyes and used his body to move Mick out of the way.
"I've got an idea. Keep contact with that lever. Just with your fingertips, though." Mick did as he was told, shifting out of the way as Len put the barrel of his cold gun right up next to the lever. He aimed it so that he, hopefully, wouldn't freeze Mick's fingers to it and fired. The blast iced over the lever and Mick carefully removed his hand. It stayed.
"Now, let's hope that holds." Len said. "C'mon." The three team members ran for the ship making it on before the Oculus Wellspring self-destructed.